“I was a bit awed,” she told the Telegraph after her landmark victory last week. “I didn’t think it would be me but, I guess, here I am.”

Ms Snow is still adjusting to the spotlight, and reticent to discuss her place in history, but says she hopes “some good comes out of” the attention she is receiving.

"A lot of people say I'm a role model, a lot of people say I'm an inspirational figure. If I can help people's lives by doing this I think that's a good thing."

She was a late entrant into the race, deciding that if no Utah Democrat was willing to run the type of campaign she believed in she would do it herself.

Misty K SnowCredit:
Rick Bowmer/AP

"I was hoping that somebody else would step up to carry that mantle of Sanders-style populism but nobody was stepping up in the Senate race so I decided, 'maybe I'll do it', and I had this gut feeling that if I do it it will work out."

When the results came in on Tuesday night they showed Ms Snow far out ahead of Jonathan Swinton, a marriage counsellor who had run as a centrist.

Should she triumph, Ms Snow will stand out in the Upper Chamber as much for her profession as for her transgender status.

“Right now the government is disproportionately made up of, you know, business owners, lawyers, bankers, millionaires and people who have never been poor,” she said, deeming the fact that she has had to “scrape by from paycheck to paycheck” an asset.

Ms Snow did not attend college in part because she did not have the necessary funds.

Mr Lee, meanwhile, is the son of Rex E Lee, who served as Solicitor General in the Reagan administration, and was himself a top lawyer before entering politics.

Ms Snow does not hide her disdain for Mr Lee’s policies. “He kind of thinks that government shouldn't be doing anything at all apparently,” she said, noting that “he’s not a very popular incumbent."

Senator Mike LeeCredit:
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

"I think we have an opportunity to beat him, especially this year with the election being as weird as it has,” she said.

Utah has twice bucked the trends of what has undoubtedly been a bizarre election cycle, selecting Mr Sanders over Hillary Clinton in the Democratic race and rejecting Donald Trump by an overwhelming margin.

Ms Snow says that Utah’s Republicans are “not at all impressed” with Mr Trump, and hopes their lack of enthusiasm could help her pull off an upset victory.

For now she plans to continue to work at the grocery store in Salt Lake City though, she admits, “not as much as I normally would.”

Asked what her friends, family and co-workers think of her sudden political rise she says, “a lot of people say they’re proud of me.”

She does not want to get ahead of herself, but does acknowledge one of the privileges of victory. She would have the opportunity to serve alongside her political idol, Mr Sanders.